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Prayer for Genealogists

Lord, help me dig into the pastAnd sift the sands of timeThat I might find the roots that madeThis family tree of mine.Lord, help me trace the ancient roadOn which my fathers trodAnd led them through so many landsTo find our present sod.Lord, help me find an ancient bookOr dusty manuscriptThat's safely hidden now awayIn some forgotten crypt.Lord, let it bridge the gap that hauntsMy soul when I can't findThe missing link between some nameThat ends the same as mine.

~by Curtis Woods

​The Dash

​I read of a man who stood to speakat the funeral of a friend.He referred to the dates on her tombstonefrom the beginning…to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birthand spoke of the following date with tears,but he said what mattered most of allwas the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the timethat she spent alive on earth.And now only those who loved herknow what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,the cars…the house…the cashWhat matters is how we live and loveand how we spend our dash.

So, think about this long and hard.Are there things you'd like to change?For you never know how much time is leftthat can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enoughto consider what's true and realand always try to understand​the way other people feel.

And be less quick to angerand show appreciation moreand love the people in our liveslike we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respectand more often wear a smile,remembering that this special dashmight only last a little while.

​So, when your eulogy is being read,with your life's actions to rehash…would you be proud of the things they sayabout how you spent YOUR dash?

​~by Linda Ellis

Your tombstone stands among the rest;neglected and alone.The name and date are chiseled outOn polished, marbled stone.It reaches out to all who careit is too late to mourn.You did not know that I existYou died and I was born.Yet each of us are cells of youIn flesh, in blood, in bone.Our blood contracts and beats a pulseEntirely not our own.Dear Ancestor, the place you filledOne hundred years agoSpreads out among the ones you leftWho would have loved you so.I wonder if you lived and loved,I wonder if you knewThat someday I would find this spot,And come to visit you.

Life is just a stopping place, a pause in what's to beA resting place along the road to sweet eternity. We all have different journeys, different paths along the wayWe all were meant to learn some things, but we were never meant to stay. Our destination is a place far greater than we know. For some the journey's quicker, for some the journey's slow. And when the journey finally ends, we'll claim a great reward And find an everlasting peace together with the Lord.

RE: William Lewis & AmeliaHi Myra, As far as I know, I have no direct connection to this Lewis line. My family married into the Mason/Jackson, WV, Lewis line in several places, but it was not direct connections for me. Thank you for asking. Judy

RE: Mays/Payton CemeteryMyra, the son and his mother are buried there. His father, according to the death certificate that someone was kind enough to post on Find A Grave, indicates that he is indeed buried in Bishop Cemetery, but it is located in Gill, Lincoln County, WV. This is quite some distance from the one I named in Cabell County.

RE: Mays/Payton CemeteryMyra, I just looked up Bishop cemeteries, and there are none listed in Cabell County, West Virginia. So without further info I think I will just leave it as is for now. If you can provide death certificates for any of the people listed in what I have called the Mays/Payton cemetery I will certainly reconsider as the naming was solely my doing. Thanks again for trying to make this as accurate as possible, which is my goal also.

RE: Mays/Payton CemeteryThanks for the contact. This cemetery is located up in the hills on a farm owned by a good friend of mine who lives in Milton. After doing a little research, and contacting the local funeral home, I gave this cemetery the arbitrary name of Mays/Payton based solely on the majority of the graves located there. There is only one Bishop. So I will look for an additional listing for Bishop, and if I find you are correct I will try to relist all of the graves to the correct name. This cemetery is rarely visited, and my friend said when he bought the property that the previous owner said that it was unnamed.